


The Boy in the Mirror

by kireteiru



Series: Better than Revenge [1]
Category: Halo, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Organized Crime, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Bodyguard Sam, CEO Michael, Castiel and Balthazar are their cousins, Detective Bobby, Enforcer/Bodyguard Dean, Future Sibling Incest, His mom is a bitch, I don't know why I ship Lucifer/Nick so hard either, I like using quotes for summaries, I'm trying to give it up, It's a bad habit, Lawyer Crowley, Lucifer is a Mob Boss, M/M, Nick is Lucifer's Twin, Organized Crime, People with Powers are called Nephilim, Police Officer Castiel, Politician Gabriel, Possible underage Sabriel?, Sam and Dean work for them, Separated at Birth, So are Gabriel Michael and Raphael, Vague crossover with Halo, idk yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-26 08:37:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3844330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kireteiru/pseuds/kireteiru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment. - Mahatma Gandhi</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Losing Him Was Blue Like I've Never Known

It began when Nick was very small. A long time to be sure, but he still remembered it. Even without the photos, it proved impossible to forget. His mother was showing him his reflection in the bathroom mirror, but when he looked, the boy in his mother’s arms wasn’t him. The other boy looked like him, an identical twin, but he was dressed in much nicer clothes and seemed… colder.

Both of them blinked at one another. Then Nick grinned and reached out. His mother laughed, and obligingly leaned in so he could touch the mirror. The other boy blinked again, then smiled a little and reached to touch the mirror from the other side, their hands meeting on the glass. It grew cold instead of warm between their hands, but Nick only smiled.

As they both grew, the other boy continued to appear in the mirror and occasionally in his dreams. He was always dressed in fine clothes; even his pjs were high quality. They discovered quickly that they could only see each other in the mirror, and when they started going to school, they tried to write each other messages, but the other couldn’t see their paper.

It was the other boy who first touched on the idea of sign language. If they couldn’t write one another, they had to find some other way to communicate, and despite initial frustrations, they persevered as only curious and determined little children could. Nick’s mother and stepfather laughed when he said he wanted to learn the “finger-speak,” but they got him a download of English sign language anyway and helped him work through the digital book.

 _‘Hello, Angel,’_ was the first thing he signed to the boy in the mirror.

 _‘Angel?’_ the other boy signed back, looking surprised.

 _‘Every time I see you, you always look so pretty,’_ Nick replied hesitantly, _‘You always wear such nice clothes. My mommy says that “angels are watching over me,” so I thought you were one. Are you?’_

The other boy smiled. _‘No, but you can call me Angel if you want. What should I call you?’_

_‘I picked your name – you pick mine.’_

_‘How about…’_ Angel’s eyes fell to his shirt. _‘Dragon?’_

Nick smoothed a hand down his chest, rubbing the printed dragon on his shirt, and grinned.

* * *

Nick continued to spend time in front of the mirror, talking to Angel. They were sure they talked when they shared dreams, but neither of them could remember what was said. So they talked while they were awake even if they had literally just woken up from a shared dream.

All the while, Nick noticed his mother growing increasingly worried and angry. Sometimes she would yell thinks that he didn’t understand, and his stepfather would yell back – they called it “adult talking,” and always told him to go to his room if they caught him listening. One day he asked Angel about something he heard.

_‘What’s a nefilim?’_

_‘A nefilim?’_

_‘Yeah. My mommy was “adult talking” with Daddy about “nefilim freaks.”’_

Angel frowned, his eyes narrowing. _‘It’s spelled Nephilim,’_ he signed, _‘and I am a Nephilim. It’s very likely that you are, too. People with powers like ours, like this-‘_ Here he reached out and touched the mirror, Nick matching his action. _‘-are called Nephilim, because people think we’re the children of angels. That’s what Nephilim are in the old stories.’_

_‘But I didn’t ask for these powers. Why does Mommy call me a freak?’_

_‘The X-men didn’t ask for their powers, either,’_ Angel signed, _‘but that doesn’t stop people from hating them, and making them hide.’_

_‘That’s not fair!’_

_‘It isn’t, is it, Dragon?’_

* * *

Nick’s parents took him to see a doctor who asked him all kinds of questions about Angel: what did he look like (“Me, but with nicer clothes”), what did they talk about (“Everything”), how did they talk in the mirror (“Like this,” and Nick signed out _‘Hello’_ ), what did Nick call him and what did he call Nick since they hadn’t asked for each other’s names (“Angel, ‘cause when I first saw him, I thought he _was_ one,” and “Dragon, ‘cause I really like my dragon shirt”), what he thought of the other boy (“I like him – he’s nice. We help each other with homework”), how often he appeared (“Not all the time. Sometimes he’s busy”), and what the other boy’s family was like (“He’s got a mommy and a daddy and a big brother and a new little brother”).

His mother and stepfather had a long talk with the doctor after that, while he sat outside in the waiting room. Fortunately, there was a mirror there, so he plopped down and waited, watching his reflection.

Between one blink and the next, Angel was there, leaning up against something Nick couldn’t see, reading an invisible book. Something alerted him to Nick’s presence, because he looked up, smiled, and set aside his book to scoot closer to the mirror. _‘Hello, Dragon,’_ he signed, _‘How’s your weekend so far?’_

_‘Weird. Mommy and Daddy took me to this doctor who asked about you.’_

Angel frowned. _‘”Asked about me?”’_ he repeated.

_‘Yeah. What you look like, what we talk about.’_

The other boy’s frown deepened.

_‘Is… Is that bad? Should I have stayed quiet?’_

_‘I don’t know.’_ He turned to talk to someone out of view, listening to the response. _“My mommy says that your doctor is probably a “psychologist,”’_ he signed out slowly, stumbling a little over the fingerspelling for the word, _‘She says that your parents think something’s wrong inside your head if they’ve taken you to see one.’_

Nick blinked. _‘But I feel fine!’_

_‘They don’t think so.’_

A hand grabbed Nick’s arm and hauled him to his feet away from the mirror. It was his mother, looking impatient and dangerously angry. “Let’s go!” she half-yelled, “We’re heading home! And I don’t care what the doctor says – there will be no more of this ‘boy in the mirror’ nonsense! Do you understand me?!”

“But Mommy-“

Nick felt the pain of the slap before he heard the sound of it.

**“Do you understand me?!”**

He forced himself to nod, covering the hot mark on his cheek. It wasn’t until he made it to his own room that the tears began to fall, fast but silent.

His mother had removed the mirror in his room, but the one in the bathroom was still there, and better yet he could get to it without being seen. He climbed up onto the counter after shutting the door. Angel appeared right away, having clearly been waiting for him to return. When he saw the red mark on Nick’s face, ice-cold fury flashed over his face. _‘Where are you?’_ he demanded, _‘I’ll come get you. I won’t let them do this to you.’_

_‘Angel-‘_

_‘Tell me.’_

_‘…Reach. Daddy works for Something Armories.’_

_‘Misriah Armories?’_

_‘I think that’s it.’_

Angel slammed his fist down on something invisible, looking beyond angry. Then he leaned forward to press his hand against the mirror. Nick leaned against the glass, his cheek level with the other boy’s hand as the mirror grew cold between them. _‘What’s your name, Dragon?’_ Angel signed with his other hand.

_‘Nick.’_

_‘Last name?’_

He shrugged.

 _‘My family calls me Lucifer,’_ Angel signed, _‘Lucifer Milton.’_

 _‘So you_ are _an angel.’_

Lucifer smiled a little. _‘Depends on your definition of “angel.”’_

* * *

Two days later, Nick’s mother took him to a different doctor, one that examined the back of his neck and skull extensively and asked a lot of questions about “what he could do.” He stayed quiet, acted like the questions confused him until his mother was forced to explain about his “imaginary friend” who wasn’t so imaginary, the “boy in the mirror.”

The doctor looked at him sternly after that. The nurses he saw on the way out either gave him a similar look or seemed strangely sad.

Angel didn’t come to the mirror for the three days that followed the second doctor. Nick hoped that meant that he, Lucifer, was actually coming to find him. He wanted to be able to hold hands with him as they walked through the gardens the other boy had shown him in dreams. He wanted to be able to sit and read books and watch movies and clouds and play games together and meet Lucifer’s family.

On the fourth day, his mother took him to the hospital, where the doctor was waiting for them. While they spoke, one of the nurses helped Nick change into a child-sized hospital gown, looking sad like the others. When he asked why, she said, “You can do beautiful things, dearie. My sister’s a Nephilim – believe me, I know. But your mom doesn’t see that. She wants it taken away.”

“She’s gonna take Angel away?!” Nick pulled back from the nurse, clutching his chest. When the nurse nodded, he broke free and ran for the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

There was a mirror over the sink. He climbed up onto the porcelain, praying that Lucifer would be there when he settled.

He wasn’t. At least, not right away. But after a minute, he appeared in his pjs, looking like he’d just woken up. _‘Dragon?’_

_‘Mommy’s gonna take you away!’_

Lucifer was instantly awake. _‘Explain.’_ When Nick told him all that had happened since they last spoke, his face went cold, all emotion gone. _‘An inhibitor,’_ he signed finally, _‘It stops us from using our powers. Normally, they’re only put on Nephilim who use their powers to do bad things.’_

_‘But I haven’t done anything wrong!’_

_‘I know, but that doesn’t seem to matter.’_ His gleamed like ice. _‘Your parents have just made some very powerful enemies.’_

Nick heard the jingle of keys outside the bathroom door. He shot a scared look at it before turning back to Lucifer.

 _‘I’ll find you someday, Dragon,’_ the other boy signed urgently, _‘We’ll get that_ thing _off you, and I’ll take you away, somewhere where they can’t hurt you again-‘_

Nick was dragged off the sink by a hand on his arm, almost cracking his skull on the way down. “Brat!” his mother screamed, hauling him out of the bathroom despite the protests of the nurses, “The sooner we get this done, the sooner everything can be normal, the way it’s supposed to be without you Nephilim freaks!”

He fought, but was quickly overpowered and sedated by the more unsympathetic nurses who shared his mother’s views. He was later told that during his surgery, when the inhibitor was first attached and powered on, he woke up and overloaded it, blowing out every light and screen in the operating room in the process. He didn’t remember a thing, but it took them three tries to sedate him again and a further four inhibitors to find a level that worked.

When he woke for real, it was to an emptiness in his mind and a hollow in his heart.

Nick and Lucifer were nine years old.


	2. Missing Him Was Dark Gray, All Alone

Scale of the Nephilim Aptitude Battery (NAB): 10 is weakest, 1 is strongest, 0 is not supposed to exist

* * *

The inhibitor caused a huge fight between Nick’s mother and grandmother. She was a Nephilim, too, a claircognizant specializing in divination and scrying. She was also the one who helped him see that Lucifer was a real boy, summoning up an image of him at school in a bowl of water.

She was furious that her daughter-in-law had put an inhibitor on Nick. He didn’t understand all that was said, still too out of it to pay much attention after his sudden cut off from his doppelganger. The impression he got was that his mother claimed no child of hers would be “one of those Nephilim freaks” and that it was bad enough she had an extended family of them without her son being one, too. Nick’s grandmother shot back that if that was the case, she should put an inhibitor on herself, too – her skills at corralling and teaching young children weren’t all natural. That ended the argument, resulting in his mother storming out with him in tow, vowing never to return.

A year after Nick lost Lucifer, the Unified Earth Governments passed a law for all of its constituent governments, finally making it illegal to put inhibitors on _any_ Nephilim not convicted of a violent crime. The verdict made his mother both prideful and angry; on one hand, Nick’s powers had been suppressed so she could have her “perfect, normal child” before it became illegal, making her smug in the presence of other “less-fortunate” parents. On the other hand, that meant parents couldn’t suppress their kids’ powers, meaning she’d have “more of the little freaks messing up my classroom.”

Nick listened to the UEG President’s speech with half an ear, picking his way through his math homework. He hated story problems. Lucifer used to help him turn words into pictures that he could work with, but no longer.

“… not been possible without the support of the Milton and Novak families. It has long been a dream of mine to extend full rights and protections to our Nephilim brothers and sisters, and this is a step on that path.”

Nick’s head snapped up just in time to see the camera cut to a warm and approachable-seeming family applauding the president’s speech. They were all dressed just as fine as the politicians around them, and though he only recognized one of them, that one was enough.

“Lucifer…” The name crossed his lips in the barest whisper, so low that even he barely heard it. He didn’t dare say anything else, didn’t dare draw attention – The taller son with the dark hair and gray eyes must have been Lucifer’s elder brother, “Michael,” and the now two-year-old “Raphael” was sitting on their mother’s lap, her belly beginning to round out with a fourth child. Lucifer’s father had had an arm wrapped around her shoulders, but he had dropped it to clap with everyone else.

Lucifer looked like he had been carved from stone, applauding, but cold and forbidding.

The camera cut away again, right before his mother entered the room. Nick quickly returned to his story problems, head down, worried that she would somehow _know_ what he’d seen and punish him for it. He’d learned to fake normalcy, to ignore the emptiness at his core and try to function without seeing or connecting with his Angel. He’d been punished for his listlessness and apathy – his mother seemed to think that he should be grateful she had suppressed his powers and taken Lucifer away. Nick didn’t understand why she felt that way – would she be happy if his stepdad was taken away, and she couldn’t ever see him again? Or all of her clothes and makeup and jewelry?

After that, Nick started going to the library after school. If Lucifer’s family was powerful enough to push through a law that had been trapped in the grind of politics for more than half a century, that meant they had to have some _serious_ money and political power.

And according to the internet, they did. The Milton family and their cousins the Novak family both came from long lines of Nephilim traced back a thousand years or more. Some of them had had the gift of foresight and played the stock market even today to amass virtually unrivalled wealth. Many had been business leaders, CEOs, founders, shareholders, on the board of directors for some of Earth and her colonies’ largest and most successful companies, leading the world of business. A fair number of them had been charismatic politicians, and though none of them had ever held any head-of-state offices, their presence was felt at virtually every level of government. Some had been entrepreneurs and engineers, on the cutting edge of innovation. They were all generous with their money, donating freely to charities and supporting their communities, and all maintained close ties to the main family line.

They also had a hand in almost every illegal activity in UEG space and had one of their family members heading up pretty much every organized crime ring in existence. The only exception that was human trafficking, and the myth behind _that_ was there was a woman who was taken captive and sold, though not before being raped multiple times by her captors. She later rose to become the wife of the current head of the family, and when he found out about her past, he dismantled all of the human trafficking rings they were involved in and forbade his subordinates from any further rapes, so great was his love for her.

The Novaks had originally been a rival family who lost a war against them, but rather than eliminate them to a man, the head of the family at the time, one “Raziel” Milton, spared them and married the rival leader’s daughter to his eldest son, joining their criminal empires. The Novaks had supported them ever since, often intermarrying with them. They, too, held positions of power, but they had a higher number of crooked cops in their ranks, keeping an eye on any investigations that looked like they were going somewhere and burying them in red tape, missing evidence, and dead witnesses.

Both families were known for the inordinate number of Nephilim they produced. They courted other powerful Nephilim to produce even more powerful children, some of whom were rumored to be Level 0, coupled with rumors of scientific experiments and genetic engineering stretching back to the 2000’s.

Or so the internet claimed. Nick wasn’t sure how much was true; very few of their subordinates had ever talked while in custody, and those that did suffered mysterious and fatal accidents before they could testify before a jury. Nothing was ever proved beyond doubt, but rumors and speculation ran rampant. It was hard for him to believe any ill of the boy who’d been so kind to him and so helpful, but his family’s criminal history seemed undeniable, even if no one had ever been able to get enough evidence for a conviction. Someday Lucifer, too, would join his family’s illegal enterprises. He was likely already being groomed for it, since he had already chosen an angel code name. The internet had the current Milton heirs as Maximillian, Lucian, and Roland, with baby Gideon on the way, but Angel had identified them as Michael, Lucifer, and Raphael. If they followed their current naming convention, he would probably be “Gabriel.”

They all had their own Wikipedia pages. _That_ made him laugh. Also, there had been more media coverage for Maximillian’s – Michael’s – surrogate pregnancy and early childhood than there had been for the King of England’s wedding and coronation.

Nick continued probing their history for several days until his mother decided he was being “shifty” and signed him up for gymnastics classes to keep him occupied after school. Why gymnastics, he didn’t know – couldn’t she have chosen something cool, like martial arts? Apparently not.

That was how he met Sarah. She was a year older than him, but even at the tender age of eleven, she knew exactly what she wanted and had her life all planned out, much to her parents’ frustration.

She was also the first Nephilim he’d met outside of his own family. She was a Level 8, and her power was a weak, very subtle form of precognition, more of a gut feeling that was never wrong than anything solid. It was that gut feeling that led her to turn to him and say, “You’ll see him again.”

Nick blinked at her. “I’m sorry?”

“The half of you that’s missing,” Sarah said, “You’ll see him again.” She was smiling so genuinely, seemed so earnest and honest and open that he believed her.

He pulled her into a hug so fierce it squeezed the breath out of her in a sharp “oof.” He would deny to his dying day that he cried as he whispered, “Thank you,” over and over.

Sarah hugged him back. Then, after class was over, they were waiting for their parents  to pick them up and take them home. She sat down beside him and said, “Tell me about him.”

And he did. Or, at least, as much as he dared, but he was sure that with a little research, she could put the pieces together herself. She didn’t seem to mind that he was so attached to a future mob boss, nor did her best friend, Lorraine.

Time seemed to crawl by as he waited for Sarah’s “prophecy” to come true. Even though he got caught up with school and gymnastics and later his part-time job, he never forgot his Angel.

* * *

Nick moved out of his mother’s house the same day he came of age, settling into one of his grandmother’s guest rooms. Since she was getting on in years and was therefore less mobile, he did chores around the house and ran errands for her in town instead of paying room and board, though he did insist on contributing toward the house bills.

In high school, he worked hard to keep his grades up, which enabled him to get into a good college on several scholarships. He wasn’t quite sure yet what he wanted to do for a living – he just knew he wanted it to involve as little English and spelling and grammar as possible. Of course, the first courses he had to take for a two-year general education degree were Composition 1 and 2. He attended every class like a man going to the gallows, proofread every essay like there was a sword over his head. Sarah was much better at writing than he was, which was fitting, since that was what she wanted to do for a living.

Lorraine had gotten married and moved away, making the two of them draw even closer, but the shadow of Nick’s Angel kept them just far enough apart to stop them from following in her footsteps. Sarah didn’t mind, and it certainly didn’t stop her from coming over to his grandmother’s house for study- and proofreading-dates.

Neither did his final fight with his mom.

* * *

Nick recognized the car in the drive the instant he turned onto the street. His hands tightened on the steering wheel, and he almost snarled at Sarah when she touched his shoulder. “Deep breaths,” she said quietly as they pulled up, “Remember your Angel. He would not let her get to him.”

He buried his face in his hands. “She’s a truly infuriating woman,” he hissed out between his fingers, “I doubt even he could keep his cool trying to argue with her.”

“Then do your best.” She got out of the car and stood, waiting, at the end of the walk to the door.

Nick inhaled deeply, then let the breath out slowly, resting his head against the steering wheel. He didn’t want to face his mother, to be reminded yet again of how she’d mutilated him. More than a decade had passed since he’d been cut off from Lucifer, but he was still hollow inside and it _still_ hurt. It made him bitter and hateful, but he had kept the emotions contained to prevent himself from being beaten.

Now they were fighting to get free.

He got out of the car and joined Sarah on the walk. Her gaze was resolute, immovable as stone, so he didn’t bother trying to send her away, out of the line of fire. She followed him inside.

His mother was sitting at the kitchen table, chattering away at his grandmother as if nothing was wrong, as if she hadn’t broken the family apart. The elder woman was bustling around the kitchen, trying to keep busy and responding with noncommittal noises when appropriate.

“Ah! There you are!” said his mother when she spotted him in the doorway, Sarah at his shoulder, “I’ve been calling and calling, Nicky. It’s not nice to ignore your mother.”

“I got a new phone,” he said bluntly, “and my number changed. Why are you here?”

“Well, since you weren’t answering my calls, I thought I’d come see how you were doing. You need to give me your new number, dear,” she said, pulling out her phone – one of the newest models on the market, and not something she could have afforded if she hadn’t divorced his first stepfather and remarried to a richer man whose beliefs were more in keeping with her own. “I want to stay connected with you – we haven’t seen enough of each other in these past few years.”

“No.”

“’No?’”

“You heard me.”

She took in his expression. Something must have shown on his face, because she frowned and said, “Nicky, you’re not still on about _that boy_ -“

“His name,” Nick interrupted, “is Lucian Milton. He was my friend, and you took him away.

“You may have given birth to me, but you are _not_ my mother, and I don’t ever want to see you again. Now, _get out._ ”

“How dare you-“

“How dare _I?!_ How dare _you!_ You don’t know what it’s like, having this _thing_ on me, and having to look _you_ in the eye every day for ten years and pretend like I didn’t hate you so I couldn’t get beaten senseless! Your obsession with being ‘normal’ destroyed me, hollowed me out and left me empty, and God help me, I _HATE_ you for it! If I ever have to see you again, I swear I’ll _ruin_ you the way you _ruined_ me! Now _GET OUT!!”_

The house rattled around them with the force of his fury, the structure groaning, lights flickering, and plaster cracking, sending dust raining down on them. Then Nick arched and gasped in pain, nails clawing at the inhibitor, and he sank to his knees, jerking at the voltage the device was sending into his system to override his emotional tap-in to his powers.

He lost awareness for a time, and when it returned, he was lying on couch cushions moved to the floor, covered in a blanket with a pillow under his head. His mother was gone.

Sarah appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, carrying a cup of one of his grandmother’s nasty but effective herbal teas. She knelt next to his makeshift bed and handed the cup to him. “How are you feeling?” she asked, as he held his nose and downed the drink in one long swallow.

“Sore,” he answered, making a face, “but… better. Thanks.”

“Honestly, I’m surprised you hadn’t lost your temper with her before now,” she said, taking back the cup, “Your anger’s been poisoning you for a long time.”

Nick laid back with a huff. “You and me both,” he admitted, “I just… I’ve never understood her blind hatred of Nephilim and everything and anything ‘abnormal.’ Like, did she really think that I was a different person, that my powers were completely gone, poof, never existed because of the inhibitor? Every time she said something negative about the Nephilim, she said it about _me._ ”

“Willful ignorance,” Sarah said wisely, “She got what she wanted in the end, so she could ignore everything else.”

“Bitch.”

Both of them giggled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I'll be working on the next chapter of Ol Ascha, for anyone who cares!


	3. All I Know Since Yesterday Is Everything Has Changed

Ten years.

Ten. _Fucking._ Years. That was how long it took for the Family to acquire Misirah Armories and all of its employee files, but none of them were detailed enough to include photos of spouses and children, even those on the company’s insurance. Lucifer had thrown a fit, but the acquisition had benefited the Family in the end, though not him. He’d dug around for Nick’s with an inhibitor installed on a certain date, but with no surname or hospital name, it could have been literally anyone.

In addition, was Nick his actual name, or was is a nickname (ha)? Was it actually spelled Nick, or was it Nyck, Nik, Nyk, Nich, Nych? Nicholas, or Nycholas, Nikolas, Nykolas?

Lucifer drummed his fingers against the car’s armrest, and stared out at the people of Reach through the bulletproof glass.

“You’re thinking of him again. Don’t need my power to see that.”

“How astute of you, Gabriel. Gold star.” Lucifer saw his eleven-year-old brother squint at him in the reflection on the window.

“Behave yourself, Lucifer,” said Michael, not looking up from the reports on his datapad.

“I _am_ behaving, Michael.”

Samuel Winchester, Gabriel’s sixteen-year-old bodyguard, snorted quietly, unable to hold it in. Objectively, Lucifer knew why – his temper had been on a hair-trigger since they had woken from cryosleep in orbit around the planet, everyone walking on eggshells around him to avoid setting him off. That was really the only reason he hadn’t snapped and killed them all.

Gabriel _liked_ Sam, which was why Lucifer only gave him a little psychic pinch rather than dropping him for the offense. The teenaged firestarter flinched and dropped his gaze.

Dean Winchester, blade summoner and Sam’s elder brother, glanced back at them in the rear view mirror. He was driving the armored SUV with his own charge, Castiel Novak, in the passenger seat. Lucifer pretended he didn’t notice the particular overlapping energy fields that meant they were holding hands, as did everyone else.

“Father says that negotiations with the Odessa Bratva have closed successfully,” Michael informed them all, scrolling through the message, “and they’ve agreed to stop their human trafficking in exchange for discounted arms and munitions now that we’ve acquired Misirah Armories.”

Lucifer glanced his way to skim the message over his shoulder, then turned back to the window. A good thing, too, because otherwise he would have missed his chance.

Time seemed to slow down the way it did in those terribly cliché romantic movies as the SUV drove past one man in particular walking down the sidewalk. The clothes were different, the figure was scruffier, but that was –

“Stop the car.”

“What?!”

-that was _himself_ -

“Stop the car now!” Lucifer was already fighting with the latch of his seatbelt, the handle on the door.

Fortunately, there was very little traffic so late at night, so Dean was able to slam in the brakes as ordered without worrying about getting rear-ended. The second eldest Milton was already stepping out of the car and onto the sidewalk. For a moment his voice abandoned him, but at last he forced out a far too hesitant “Dragon?”

The man’s head snapped up, and _God_ , they had lived their lives entire _systems_ apart but they were still identical. “Angel?”

Lucifer couldn’t have stopped his smile if his life had depended on it, reputation be damned. “My Dragon.” Nick _ran_ to him, and the instant they touched, they were whole. The void inside them was filled with the other’s presence, their foreheads pressed together as they simultaneously laughed and cried.

They were whole.

* * *

Nick went with Lucifer and his family to the five-star hotel where they were staying, so caught up in the completeness of their connection that he almost forgot to let his grandmother know he wouldn’t be home that night.

Gabriel cheekily shifted to sit on Sam’s lap so that Nick could ride with them to the hotel after he was searched, the younger Winchester blushing under Michael’s intense stare. The youngest Milton had made no secret of his intent to pursue a relationship with his bodyguard the instant they were no longer in statutory rape territory, though he had allowed the elder Nephilim to explore other relationships. Michael disapproved, but Gabriel didn’t care. Michael always disapproved.

Nick didn’t notice. He spent the entire ride pressed close to his doppelganger, his face buried in the other’s throat. Lucifer’s arms were wrapped so tight around him that it seemed he was trying to squeeze away his breath, but Nick didn’t mind; he knew his grip had to be just as tight.

Their arrival at the hotel happened with little fanfare. The identical Nephilim were forced to part in order to get out of the car, but they held hands all the way up to their floor- the penthouse, because of _course_ people with money could afford the two-grand-per-night fee, and it slept all of the Miltons and their attachés.

Lucifer tugged Nick into his room and shut the door behind him before heading for the bathroom. For the moment, at least, Nick was content to follow along in his wake, their fingers entwined. The gangster dug through some of his luggage (Nick distinctly saw a gun. Why did his Angel have a _gun_ in his _toiletries_ bag?), and pulled out a flat rectangle the size of a hand. He unfolded a testing needle from one of the shorter sides. “One of Father’s conditions for letting me search for you,” Lucifer explained, pricking his finger first, then changing out the needle to prick Nick’s, “He wants to know why we’re so much alike, why we’re linked.” He set the device down on the counter.

“I’d like to know that, as well.” Nick laced their fingers together once more. His Angel gave him a gentle squeeze.

The device beeped, and projected its results up onto the bathroom mirror. The DNA test and subsequent genome map indicated that they were _genetically identical_ , and that their particular genetic code (Nephilim genes and all) was so unique that there was a better chance of Reach spontaneously imploding than the two of them being unrelated.

They were identical twins.

Lucifer frowned. So did Nick. “Children don’t usually survive deep space travel,” said the former, “The cryosleep procedure and Slipspace radiation are often fatal to children under six.”

“We were born on Earth?”

“I was, at least.” Lucifer’s frown deepened. “Up until Gideon – Gabriel – all of us were born from powerful Nephilim surrogates, or people with superior bloodlines. Some Nephilim exist only to enhance the powers of others. Our mother was one such.”

“Her name?”

Lucifer gave it. Nick stared, wrath building and turning to ice. “That’s _my_ mother.”

The mobster’s ire began to rise as well, “She must have hidden it from Father,” he gritted out in realization, “that there were two of us. One child was what he asked of her, and one was what she gave, taking the other – taking _you_ – with her when her job was done.” He reached out to stroke Nick’s cheek, then slid a hand around to the back of his neck. When he felt the metal of the inhibitor, still uncovered by skin, his eyes darkened. “That will be removed before we leave for Earth, even if I have to bring Raphael here to heal you.”

“You want me to come with you?”

“Unless you have a reason to stay.”

His job was nothing special – there were veterinary assistant positions on Earth, too. But Sarah and his – _their_ grandmother… “There are two people I’d like to bring with us to Earth, if we can, if they will come – our grandmother and a friend of mine, a Nephilim with some small power of foresight – but otherwise, no, I have no reason to stay.”

“A Nephilim?”

“Her name is Sarah,” he answered, “She’s the one who told me I’d see you again.”

Lucifer hummed in acknowledgement.

When they emerged into the common area, Michael held up his tablet and snapped a picture of them together. “Father wanted proof,” he said, immersing himself in the datapad once more.

“You can add that he actually has five children, not four,” the second-eldest Milton said, leading the way to the dining area where some of the hotel staff were laying out food under Dean’s watchful gaze, “Nick and I are apparently identical twins.” He tossed the micro DNA scanner to Michael, who aligned the sensors and began downloading the data from the box.

“Welcome to the family!” Gabriel crowed. Sam was trying in vain to stop him from eating nothing but desserts for dinner.

Nick smiled. “Thank you.”

* * *

Nick knew something was wrong the instant he woke up. He had spent the night curled up with Lucifer, sharing dreams, catching up on all they had missed in each other’s lives. The mobster censored some of his events, though, rightly sensing that Nick didn’t want or need to know about all the people he had killed or trafficking deals he had made.

Yet when they both opened their eyes, they both sensed it. No one had entered their room since they retired and sealed it for the night, but the very air felt disturbed, upset. All was not as it should be.

The other Nephilim couldn’t detect anything wrong, but they trusted the twins’ judgement – Lucifer’s version of extra-sensory perception had always been the most sensitive out of all of them, able to detect even the tiniest changes where there shouldn’t have been any. “We need to go,” he informed them, “soon. Now, if possible.”

“I’ll have the ship prepped for departure,” Michael said, already sending out messages on his datapad.

“Nick, let’s go visit our grandmother and this Nephilim friend, Sarah. If necessary we can arrange for them to follow us, but we need to be away.”

The twins, Dean, and Castiel left the hotel, heading for Nick’s grandmother’s house on the outskirts of the city. The neighborhood she lived in wasn’t the slums, but it wasn’t high end, either, far enough from the city to avoid all the traffic and other assorted ills, but close enough to be convenient for all who lived there.

The door was open.

Nick’s hand tightened on the car’s safety handle as they pulled up in front of the house.

The door was open. The door was _never_ left open, _never_ , not even in the height of summer when everyone else had all their windows and doors flung wide to tempt a breeze, no matter how humid.

Lucifer noticed his alarm, and pulled his firearm from the holster under his suit jacket. “Stay behind me,” he murmured, as Dean whipped out both a gun and a wicked-looking ten-inch ceremonial blade, no less sharp or deadly than any other knife. Castiel had his own weapon out, too, a silvery, double-edged short sword that looked like it had seen a lot of use.

The three gangsters entered the house like trained professionals, sweeping from room to room and calling “Clear!” when they failed to find anyone.

The television was missing off the wall, along with the media player, the small sound system, and pretty much every other thing of value in the whole house.

Sarah and his grandmother had been murdered in their beds, their blood staining the sheets red and filling the air with the smell of copper.

Lucifer gripped his arm to steady him when Nick saw. “Call the police,” the elder twin ordered, shooting a glance at Dean. The man was already dialing, Castiel standing next to him, grief-stricken. He was good at what he did, keeping investigations into the Milton and Novak enterprises from going anywhere, but he had too soft a heart to actively participate in the family business.

Nick turned away from the sight of his friend’s corpse, forcing his breathing to stay under control even as tears dripped down his face. Lucifer guided him back outside and let him bury his face in his throat again. They stood there until the police arrived.

“Oh my goodness!”

“ _Go. Away,”_ Nick hissed without lifting his head. It could only be one person.

“Is this her?” Lucifer asked, tone icy, “Our _mother?_ ” He said the word like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Yes,” said his twin, turning his head just enough to see, “This is her.”

The woman gasped and took a step back, closer to Nick’s stepfather, paling under the cold glare of the two identical men. “You- You-”

“Found each other at last, no thanks to you, _mother,_ ” Lucifer said coldly, pulling Nick closer, “Did you squander the five hundred grand Father gave you to give birth to us the same way you tried to waste my twin’s talents?”

She drew herself up, cheeks flushing with rage. “And if I had known what _freaks_ you all were, I never would have agreed, no matter how much money you offered me! Disgusting little _monsters_ with your unnatural powers – I should have killed you both when I found out what _they_ were, what they wanted you to be!”

“Perhaps you should have,” the gangster said softly, before seizing her and her husband’s minds and forcing them both to leave.

* * *

The three men responsible were caught in the act of committing another murder-robbery less than a week later, and sent to prison without bail. The Miltons hired the best lawyer available to ensure a maximum sentence, and another to handle both wills of the deceased. Nick’s grandmother had written his mother out of her will shortly after the inhibitor incident, leaving everything to him, and though most of Sarah’s belongings passed back to her parents, she left him the completed manuscripts for her trilogy to be published posthumously and a few small trinkets from their time together.

The house was cleaned up, purified, and sold, along with everything that Nick could bear to part with. The rest of it came with them when the Miltons and Novaks returned to Earth.


End file.
